AMERICA BEYOND CAPITALISM

Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy

with a new introduction by the author and a new foreword by James Gustave Speth

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Praise for the new edition:

This challenging work succeeds in a task that may seem almost utopian in dark times suffused by anger, hopelessness, and despair: to provide concrete and feasible ways to reverse the ominous course of the past several decades and to open the way to a vibrant democracy with a sustainable economy that can satisfy human needs, not least the need to control one’s work and life. It is an impressive achievement, that should inspire thought and constructive action. —Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

America Beyond Capitalism is one of the most important books of the decade. Alperovitz provides an exceptionally fresh and insightful perspective on the challenges that plague our economy, environment and society while providing brilliant and practical solutions that we must embrace and put to work to seize a brighter future. —Jeffrey Hollender, founder of Seventh Generation and co-founder of the American Sustainable Business Council

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As discontent with the economic and political status quo mounts in the wake of the “great recession”, America Beyond Capitalism is a book whose time has come. Gar Alperovitz’s expert diagnosis of the long-term structural crisis of the American economic and political system is accompanied by detailed, practical answers to the problems we face as a society. Unlike many books that reserve a few pages of a concluding chapter to offer generalized, tentative solutions, Alperovitz marshals years of research into emerging “new economy” strategies to present a comprehensive picture of practical bottom-up efforts currently underway in thousands of communities across the United States. All democratize wealth and empower communities, not corporations: worker-ownership, cooperatives, community land trusts, social enterprises, along with many supporting municipal, state and longer term federal strategies as well. America Beyond Capitalism is a call to arms, an eminently practical roadmap for laying foundations to change a faltering system that increasingly fails to sustain the great American values of equality, liberty and meaningful democracy.

Gar Alperovitz is the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative. He is the author of numerous books, including Unjust Deserts (with Lew Daly), Making a Place For Community (with Thad Williamson and David Imbroscio), Rebuilding America (with Jeff Faux) and, in connection with foreign policy, Atomic Diplomacy and The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb.

Praise for the first edition:

America Beyond Capitalism comes at a critical time in our history—when we all know our system isn’t working but we are not sure what can be done about it. This book takes us outside the confines of orthodox thinking, imagines a new way of living together, and then brings that vision back into reality with a set of eminently practical ideas that promise a truly democratic society. —Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States

Gar Alperovitz discovers that not only have the seeds of a legitimately democratic political economy been planted, they are bearing fruit. Addressing a range of necessary changes, from urban design to health care to the distribution of wealth, Alperovitz’s Pluralist Commonwealth is the kind of careful, well-researched, and practical alternative progressives have been seeking. And it’s more—visionary, hopeful, even inspirational. I highly recommend it.—Juliet Schor, author of Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth

An important guidebook to the future. First, Alperovitz leads a grim tour of the deteriorated values at the core of the American experience – equality, liberty, democracy, and the wise use of our collective wealth. Then he takes us to the mountaintop with a broad and optimistic mapping vision of how Americans can remake their economy and society to restore those values. A compelling and convincing story of the future.—William Greider, author of The Soul of a Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy

The book is powerfully written and well researched…it is animated by a vision of a democratic and egalitarian political economy that is badly needed. Robin Blackburn, sociologist; editor, New Left Review

Succeeds brilliantly in taking the Jeffersonian spirit into the last bastion of privilege in America, offering workable solutions for making the American economy one that is truly of, by, and for the people. —Jeremy Rifkin, author of The End of Work

Highly readable; excellent for students…. A tonic and eye-opener for anyone who wants a politics that works. —Jane Mansbridge, Adams Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University